Hydraulic Elevators

[Leonard]

I posted these pictures on 49er Mikes forum answering a question so I thought I'd include them here also. They were from Breckinridge, Co in the early 1900's. Bedrock was 73 feet down.

hydraulic elevator 3.jpg (58.26 KiB) Viewed 4992 times

hydraulic elevator 2.jpg (92.92 KiB) Viewed 4992 times

hydraulic elevator 1.jpg (59.87 KiB) Viewed 4992 times

Water pressure was 182 psi and it lifted -8" material 100 feet straight up to a sluice box on top.

Leonard

[CGC Miner]

Cool pictures, I think the first picture is the elevator built on the Blue River near the sand and gravel operation today. I sure wouldn't want to get anywhere close to the intake of that beast!

[Leonard]

The pit in the pictures is now known as "the Maggie Pond"
Leonard

[Joe S (AK)]

I have heard the tern "Hydraulic Elevators" for years, and yet I don't know, for sure, exactly what they were.

Possibly, could they have been a way to raise slurry using the same techniques as a modern suction dredge? Possibly with multiple high pressure injection points?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Joe

[Leonard]

You got it. It's basically a jet aimed upwards. It mixes slurry and air and shoots it up.
Leonard

[CalGoldDredger]

Evans Hydraulic Elevator, hmmmm, I have one of those but mine sets on floats and is a little smaller. Think it would work on the authorities????

I remember, now, where I have see something like this used.
It was used to lift the slurry to the sluice in some of the hydraulic mines in certain situations, some sluices were elevated so they could use drop boxes for classification of finer material, not on such a large scale as this.
Elevators, good old days.

Cool Leonard, thanks for sharing that.

[russau]

kinda like Dave Franks venturi that he uses

[Plumas]

Good examples of the Evans' elevators. Other elevators of the time were the Hendy and the Cambell. The Cambell was said to be adapted to higher pressures and were successfully used in BC. and Alaska.

The elevators shown in Breckinridge were working deposits with 160 feet of head but my records (Wilson) claim they were lifting the material 42 feet rather than 73 feet above bedrock. This was considered a very good show as on the average, 100 feet of head would provide lift of about 20 feet. Mining engineers of the time based their calculations on 15 feet per 100 feet of head to leave themselves a little wiggle room. Ideal velocity was considered to be 5 feet per second. Some of the larger elevators used grizzlys that screened out rocks bigger than eight inches! Everything else went up the pipe and onto the sluices.

Back in the day, under favorable conditions the cost of working elevators was five cents per cubic yard which included the hydraulicking. A good elevator could move 1-2,000 yards in 24 hours.

There was another elevator called the Ludum which was very close what the modern suction dredge power jet is today (only standing on end) and they were also employed to some extent.

I’ve gathered quite a bit of information on these elevators over the years including photographs, working drawings, their hydraulic formulas, cost charts and such.

A very fascinating and mostly overlooked bit of mining history.

Thank you for posting these images.

Plumas

[Hoser John]

In dayz of old when miners were bold and environutz weren't invented---born a 100 years tooooo late John

[Leonard]

Plumas:
If you collect elevator material, you need this book. Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ ... ition=used has several and less then $10.00.
Leonard